stewaet



J..H. STEWART.

'Patented Oct. 16, 1883.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

.IU-LIUS H. STEWART, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

BREEmCH-LOADING ORDNANCE.

1 SPECIFICATION forming part 0f Letters Patent No. 286,649, dated October 16, 1883. Y

Application filed December 14, 1882.

o all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JULIUs HENRY STEWART, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of San Francisco, and State of California, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fire-Arms, of which this, with4 the accompanying drawing, is a specification.

lI`he object of my invention is to get the best effectpossible ofthe powder consumed by keeping up an increased combustion until the ball or projectile has left the mouth-of the gun.

The figure is a longitudinal section of a cannon.

A is the barrel; B, the breech-pin; C, the projectile; D, the tube through which there is conducted to the powder in the explodingchamber. E is the exploding-chamber, and F the vent-hole leading to the outside of the gun and provided with some one of the well-known methods of igniting the powder within.

It will be observed that' the tube D is securely fastened to the breech-pin B, the other end terminating exactly at one-half the distance between the breech-pin and the projectile, thereby igniting the powder in the center, causing it to burn in both directions; but as the area toward the breech is constantly increasing, consequently more powder is burned pin, as shown in the drawing.

` ber E.

I wish to call special attention to the curved sides ofthe lower half of the exploding-cham- I have discovered by experiment,

since my application, that this particular form f is conducive of far better results, which is shown by the greater penetration of the pro- (No model jectile, than any other form, for the reasonthat 4o when the powder is first exploded the explosion takes place at the end of the tube D which is located in that part of the chamber which has an area equal to that of the projectile. Consequently the smallest quantity of powder is being burned while the` inertia of the projectile is being overcome. It is obvious that after the projectile has once been put in motion, and it can be followed up with an accelerating power-s-uch as would be the case by the combustion of a continuous and increasing quantity of powder until the projectile has reached the mouth of the gun-the greatest possible velocity would be acquired, and to produce this result I burn as little powder as possible at the commencement, and as much as possible at the end of the explosion, and that this 1re`sult is obtained in actual practice, repeated experiments have proven. I also claim another greatadvantageby exploding the powderin this particular manner. It is a well-known fact that in ordinary guns the greatest strain, and consequently the greatest recoil, is produced by putting the projectile 'in motionthat is, by

overcoming its inertia; but by my method of 6 5 burning powder the inertia is overcome so gradually that the strain is greatly diminished, Y

thereby prolonging the life of the gun.

Having illustrated and described my invention, what I deem new, and desire to obtain by 7o Letters Patent, is-

A fire-arm with an exploding-chamber having curved sides, in combination with the tube D, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

J. H. STEVART.

Witnesses:

G. L. PIERCE, JOHN E. HAMILL. 

